Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore such as fairy tales and folk mythology in oral or non-literary traditions. It makes use of such methods as the Aarne-Thompson classification system or the typology devised for Russian tales by Vladimir Propp. Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ... A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ... Mythology is the study of myths: stories of a particular culture that it believes to be true and that feature a specific religious or belief system. ... Antti Aarne (1867 - 1925) was a Finnish folklorist, who developed the initial version of what became the Aarne-Thompson classification system of classifying folktales, first published in 1910. ... Vladimir Propp (St Petersburg, April 29, 1895 - Leningrad August 22, 1970) was a Russian structuralist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. ...

Scholars specializing in folkloristics are known as folklorists or mythologists. Some scholars include :

• Antti Aarne
• Walter Anderson
• Johannes Bolte
• Ben Botkin
• Thomas Bulfinch
• John Francis Campbell
• Thomas Crofton Croker
• Jeremiah Curtin
• Brothers Grimm
• Edith Hamilton
• Thomas Keightley
• Julius Krohn
• Kaarle Krohn
• Isidor Levin
• Alan Lomax
• Vladimir Propp
• Kurt Ranke
• Carl von Sydow
• Archer Taylor
• Stith Thompson
• Lady Wilde
• Glen Grant
• Arnold van Gennep

Antti Aarne (1867 - 1925) was a Finnish folklorist, who developed the initial version of what became the Aarne-Thompson classification system of classifying folktales, first published in 1910. ... Walter Anderson (Minsk, (Belarus) October 10, 1885 – August 23, 1962 in Kiel (Germany) was a German folklorist. ... Ben Botkin (1901-1975) was an American folklorist and scholar. ... Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts to a highly-educated but not rich Bostonian merchant family. ... John Francis Campbell (1822 - 1885), celtic scholar, educated at Eton and Edin. ... Thomas Crofton Croker (1798 - 1854) was a Irish Antiquary, born at Cork, for some years held a position in the Admiralty. ... Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm The Brothers Grimm (Brüder Grimm) are Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. ... Edith Hamilton (August 12, 1867 - May 31, 1963) was a classicist and educator before she became a writer on mythology. ... Thomas Keightley (1789 - 1872) was a historian, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, who wrote works on mythology and folklore, and at the request of Dr Thomas Arnold of Rugby, a series of text-books on English, Greek, and other histories. ... Lomax playing guitar, sometime between 1938 and 1950 Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American folklorist and musicologist specializing in the music of the United States and that of other nations which influenced American music. ... Vladimir Propp (St Petersburg, April 29, 1895 - Leningrad August 22, 1970) was a Russian structuralist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. ... Glen Grant, looking through the window of his store, the Haunt, in a 2001 photo. ... Arnold Van Gennep was born 23 April 1873 at Ludwigsbourg in Germany and died in 1957 at Bourg-la-Reine in France. ...

Literature on the subject of folkloristics

• Aarne, Antti (1961). "The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography." ed. S. Thompson, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki
• von Brednich, Rolf W. et al (2000)., Enzyklopädie des Märchens: Handwörterbuch zur historischen und vergleichenden Erzählforschung, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York
• Thompson, Stith (1946). The Folktale, The Dryden Press, New York